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Author
Topic: How hot are you? (Read 3794 times)

Mine is normally set to 15ºC (59ºF) so that's what I voted for. I put it up to 20º (68ºF) for a half-hour when I first get up, and then again for an hour in the early evening. I actually set an alarm so I don't forget to turn it back down.

If I'm cold in-between, I sometimes use an oil-filled radiator in the room I'm in (usually my upstairs bedroom cum office, or the living room) until the room gets to about 18º (64.4ºF).

I never have it set over 15º (59ºF) past 8pm, 9pm at the very latest and I only put the oil-filled radiator on temporarily in the evening/night if I can't shake a chill.

If I'm going to be out of the house for more than four or five hours, I put it right down to 10º (50ºF).

My system allows for scheduled on/off heating, but with my erratic hours I find using the thermostat makes more sense.

I started this poll because I'm curious. Do other forum members wear layers of clothing in the house during the winter (often including hoodies and fingerless gloves) and keep the heating low like I do, or am I nuts?

BTW, you South Floridians may participate and vote for the temperature your (cool air) air-conditioner clicks on at, if you must gloat.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

You'd love my apartment Ann. Since I'm on the 4th floor my apartment naturally absorbs the rising heat from the lower apartments, especially during the after-work hours when more people are at home. As long as it's not lower than ~37F/3C outside with no wind, I can keep my heater off and the internal temperature not go below 65F/18C.

Unfortunately if it's windy outside, coming from the west which is most usual, it's a different story. Most of my apartment faces that direction, as do most of my windows. My living room has three smallish but contiguous windows that amount to about 85x55 inches of exposure, and my bedroom has a really large 55x35 inch window. All of the windows are still old wood frame and not modernized, though they do have storm panes too (also old) so when it's windy outside there is a bit of a draft possible which lowers my indoor temperatures by 3-4 degrees.

All that said I am often lazy and leave the heat running (it's a central A/C-heat system with one thermostat as my apartment is only ~650 sq. ft one bedroom) higher than I need to, because sometimes I like to wear shorts and a t-shirt. But sometimes I wear flannel pajamas or sweat pants/hooded top and just turn off the heater during the day. If I was more disciplined like you are I could definitely trim my winter bills more substantially. I also keep it running at night, though I lower it, but that's more to do with my development of arthritis as well as horrible circulation in my feet and hands which keep them colder than is comfortable, and that's gotten worse since all of my foot surgeries. I often have to sleep wearing socks which I really hate, in fact wearing any clothing while sleeping causes me emotional distress.

I remember when I lived with a family in a council flat in the UK in the late 80's they had a timer on the heating system which warmed the house up briefly an hour before everyone woke up, and turned it down at some point after bedtime. It may have done the same thing with the water heater. All I remember is that they kept that home way too cold, as generally most British people do.

But to summarize, I prefer my internal temperature to be around 70 degrees. If I aimed for 59 I could probably just not even turn on the entire system. I think when I went away for Thanksgiving and it was off for a week I checked my desk thermometer which has a maximum and minimum recording setting and it didn't go below 56F.

ps: summer is an entirely different story -- my apartment being on the top floor of a really old building that lacks an attic or crawl space with proper insulation is basically like living in an oven. I run the A/C 24/7 from mid-May until mid-Sept and keep the interior temperature at ~72F. This costs me an exorbitant amount of money, though I have it spread out over 12 months with my utility companies -- my system uses a combination of electricity and natural gas. Right now this comes to $200/month or $2400 annually, and like I said this isn't a huge apartment.

Both my older brother and I have to always adjust the thermostat in my parent's house whenever we visit, but since I'm there for periods of a week it's sometimes a constant fight. My mother is fine about it but my father has become cheaper and cheaper as he's getting older -- about everything. I remember my grandmother getting like that once she sailed past 75. I've had to make vocal threats of future restrictions on visiting in the summertime if they don't adjust the A/C to a proper level. Unfortunately I went down there during that awful heat wave last summer and recently told my mother that I won't be visiting again during July or August.

ps: since shutting off the heat completely two hours ago the temperature is at 69F/20C and it's 32F/0C outside right now, easterly wind gusts of 20mph

I'm still running A/C here and it's set at 73 degrees. Funny story, when I was in Boston it was one of the warmest Winter's on record and Whitman, the city we lived in, got something like 9" of snow.... TOTAL. After I left it went back to normal.

In the summer, I set the a/c to 73. It the winter, 68 degrees. But, I'm usually hot and Brian is usually colder. I prefer to wear more clothing, instead of cranking up the heat. I just noticed Brian turned it up to 70. My mom kills us at her house, because she will set it to like 78. They act like 70 would be freezing.

I know experts say to turn the thermostat way down, when not at home. But, I always wonder whether you really save energy that way. If you set it down to 55, for example, then your furnace is running a long time to get it back to 68. It would seem to use just as much energy, to me. If we are going to be gone over night or longer, I will turn it way down.

We recently got experience with living with 53 degree temp in the house. Our furnace went out and a cold snap hit earlier than usual. $5,000 to get it replaced, which included the new coil for the a/c unit. We will have to shell out about $1,300 for the outside unit in spring.

I guess I'm the freakazoid. It's not about cost, but rather comfort. I never ever set the thermostat above 60. I even eliminated the register vent in my bedroom as I like it even colder when I sleep.

I'm convinced I have an internal defect as I'm always feeling overheated. Winter time is the only period when I don't have to shower several times per day to cool off. I can also almost wear one outfit the entire day.

Wolfie

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So by the time I woke up at 8:30 AM the minimum temperature in my apartment without the heater running all night long was a mere 65F -- not bad, and I still haven't even gotten out my down comforter and flannel duvet. So I'm running it Ann-like for a short period to get it back up to ~70F then I'll shut it off again for day.

IIRC I can mostly only do this on 1) weekends 2) if the daily high is above 32F with no westerly wind or 3) I remember to do any of it, which I should because it saves a lot of money.

But often it's just too cold and windy outdoors in January and February to do this very much.

In the winter, my heater doesn't need to run unless it gets close to freezing overnight. In some Texas winters, that rarely happens here in Austin. In other Texas winters (like this one), it's been happening for over 2 weeks.

I live in a row home (sort of like a town house, but on a public street), and benefit from having a neighbor on one side of me (and also benefit from no neighbors on the other side, since I have the end unit). My row home has a southern exposure, so on sunny winter days my heater does not run. This place was also built just 3 years old, so I benefit from having great insulation, and double-pane windows. My gas bill in the winter is rarely over $40.00.

Years ago (last century), when I lived in Binghamton, New York, my gas bills in the winter sometimes approached $200. That's what happens when you rent a home built circa 1900 (complete with gas lighting fixtures, but no insulation). Binghamton is one cold, wet, snowy place.

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"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock, Musician, The Flatlanders

I run 72°F/70°F in the winter and 74°F in the summer. Our utility bills rarely exceed $200/month gas/electricity combined. Our house is newer construction and well-insulated.

If it gets below 68°F in the house, my hands stop working and my nose drips constantly. If it were up to my wife and daughter, the house would be at 40°F day-in and day-out.

I have a programmable thermostat, but our house is occupied 24/7. Some of my family work nights, some work days, so being able to schedule off-time or lower settings is practically impossible.

Before switching all our CRT monitors and TVs to LED, having a TV/monitor on in a room was like running a heater, especially in the bedrooms. So now, while we save on electricity with the new stuff, the savings is offset by the additional heating costs.

One of our cats stakes out the heater vent in the kitchen throughout the winter. Every time the heat cycles on, he can be found hogging the vent. The furball doesn't bother any other vent in the house but that one. Both cats will seek out laptops and other warm appliances to park on. FWIW, They consider all of us warm appliances.

Wasn't there some studies that said we get better sleep at about 62 degrees? And, sleeping with no socks on, of course. I guess the cool air around our feet helps us sleep, but I don't want popsicle feet. I like it cooler at night. I would much prefer to be under the warm covers, while the air temp is cooler. Prefer this much better to cranking it up and throwing off covers.

I am usually the hot one. But, I do go through changes. I was freezing tonight with my fingers so cold. Made a fire and everything. Then, I was sweating and had to turn the fan on me. I know many who crank it up, before they get into the shower. I turn it down. I already come out of the hot shower blazing. I don't need extra heat. I often have to step outside in the cold, because someone turned up the heat while I was in the shower.

So the wind kicked up to ~20mph from the west yesterday/last night and I had to run the heat all night to maintain a ~69F temperature. When it's like that if I shut it off all night it would go down to 60F easily and I can't handle waking up and feeling like I'm in a crack house in North Philly.

I get a tremendous amount of steam heat in my Queens, New York City apartment that I have no control over. Sometimes in the dead of winter (now through late February) I have to open windows and my terrace door to get some cool air in here. I have steam pipes from ceiling to floor in the kitchen and bathroom where you get all the heat they send up (the pipes get hot as my cat Bonnie once found out) and there are radiators in the living room and bedroom.

Years ago a neighbor advised me to open the front cover on the radiator and bring a metal plate all the way down on top of the heat source and I did so in the bedroom to keep it cooler when I sleep. But I left it alone in the living room so I get 100% of that heat as the plate stays up above the heat source on the bottom.

My mom hasn't been able to come up from New Jersey in quite some time but she always used to tell people that coming to my apartment in the winter was a way to warm her old bones.

Stay warm all winter my friends.

Jody (The Hot Dude)

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I get a tremendous amount of steam heat in my Queens, New York City apartment that I have no control over. Sometimes in the dead of winter (now through late February) I have to open windows and my terrace door to get some cool air in here. Jody (The Hot Dude)

Oh boy, do I remember that, when I lived near Buffalo. Years ago we had steam ( or maybe it was just hot water heat. We had the huge cast radiators in each room, with the pipes that ran up along the wall to the upstairs radiators.,and yes they would get hot !

I also remember a small key, that would be used to open a valve on the top of the radiator, to let air out of the lines, and the top portion of the radiator, otherwise, the pipes would make a banging noise. Sounded as though the pipes were being hit with a sledge hammer.

I hated those heat pipes and radiators in NYC. There was one that ran up a corner of my bedroom on the Lower East Side that would positively burn you if you brushed up against it. And landlords would skirt close to the law and not turn the heat on until the last possible legal moment, so you'd go weeks at the beginning of colder weather shivering so I also had one of those electric room heating units.

Then at the height of winter like Jody one would have to keep a window open just to breathe, and I had to have a humidifier running constantly in my bedroom or I felt horrible. I even bought a larger one for the living room.

Then when I moved to Brooklyn the radiator nozzle would spit out bits of moisture and one time it was so bad it sprayed all over a box of photos I had dating back to high school, causing them all to stick together -- so now I have no photos, or very few, of myself from a period of close to 20 years. Thanks!

Where I live now they installed central A/C-heating units on the roof for each apartment, but the building is over 150 years old and they left the old iron radiators in the rooms because removing them and all of the piping would have been really expensive. Sounds trivial but in 650 sq. ft. of space this means those three old radiators take up room that could otherwise be used. All they are good for now is for a potted plant.

In So. Cal. once it hits 55 on goes the heat. 75 is comfy for me. It's cranking right now.My guess is Ann lives in the UK.I'm orig. from NI moved to San Diego 25 yrs ago and my blood has thinned.Now live in Palm Springs, 110degrees in summer. Yummy

PS I don't think I've ever have been in a home in GB that is properly evenly heated, in winter we used to have horse blankets on our beds.Jst last Nov. I was in Ireland and had a horse blanket to snuggle under. Oh the memories……..

I have my heating set at 18. And use heavy curtains [ Thick lined velvet} in livingroom, black out thermal blinds in all the other rooms windows are 6x4 feet for heating and A/C

I hate living in A/c air, and hate the way the individual units deface buildings and how they gobble up energy.

If you don,t have double glazing secondary Glazing helps alot. The rest of the house has low energy light bulbs and that cuts down the heat in the summer.

All that can be turned off at night is, I use plug in light bulbs parents use for night light so I don't brain my self.

Clothes Layers --merino /chasmire wool and the new materials for outdoors mean you do not have to be an anorexic Michelin personBed Layers. check the internet companies for feather duvet,s /woollen blankets cotton throws , pyjamas / thermal underwear .Wear /hats /thick socks/hats/cravats / thermals inside that was just a return to 0 to 16 living the parent home rules.

This was a discipline adopted when i was 32ish as a reaction to climate change.It was a pain at first now the pain is inverted as it can be hard adjusting to a household that runs differently.

Currently having all the windows draft proved , cheap intervention and very effective .

Off course when I am poorly these rules are bent to meet the need.

As I said this was a the person is political sort off thing but a very effective, comfortable and amazing for me money saving.

« Last Edit: January 11, 2014, 03:46:40 AM by Theyer »

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